The rest of the group looked at Kairos curiously, wondering why he was sending off everyone else. It wasn’t as though they were suspicious of him or anything, but they were simply used to going together.
Kairos let out a soft sigh.
“There is something I want to try, and there isn’t much point in being with others for it.”
Nicole pouted.
“W-What is it?”
Kairos shrugged his shoulders.
“My own way that I think might boost my power. I can’t get many points from killing monsters now that I’m a rank higher than them after all. I’ll leave that for when most of the monsters out there become D-rank.”
Chase nodded.
“That makes sense.”
Kairos stretched.
“I suppose you don’t have to go right now, as it seems they are only super active at night. Though you should still prepare, so you don’t waste time later. And… that’s pretty much it.”
Tori stood up from the chair.
“Alright! I’ll go prepare right now, thank you for having me!”
Sydney let out a soft chuckle and got up as well. As for Chase, he was still sitting at his seat, waiting for Tori to move. However, Tori was simply staring at him, also waiting for him.
Tori tilted her head to the side.
“Are you coming?”
Chase blinked a few times.
“…I suppose.”
He reluctantly got up, and Tori practically dragged him out. Sydney did not hesitate much in leaving either. As for Nicole, she remained in her seat along with Kairos. After a moment of silence, she reached over to grab his arm, then hugged it with both hands.
“You… aren’t coming with us?”
Kairos sighed.
“…There’s also another reason. One of my abilities has a drawback of lowering my mana regeneration. At the current rate, I won’t be able to have enough mana to contribute significantly. If I do join, it can at most be every other day.”
Nicole pouted, then rested her head on his shoulder.
“Then… could I stay with you instead?”
Kairos lightly patted Nicole’s head.
“Sorry. I told you this before, remember? Until the apocalypse settles down, we’re friends. Otherwise, things will get complicated.”
Nicole let out a small groan, like she was a kid complaining about not getting the candy they wanted.
“…Ok.”
She held onto his arm a little tighter.
“Then… just let me stay like this a tiny bit longer.”
Kairos sighed.
“…Not for too long, ok?”
Nicole’s voice became soft and sheepish.
“O-Ok.”
And so, they spent a few minutes like that in silence. Eventually, Nicole spoke up out of curiosity.
“…Do you really not hate Edward at all for what he did?”
Kairos let out a soft chuckle.
“I really don’t.”
Nicole puffed her cheeks up.
“I still don’t get how you can be so forgiving.”
Kairos rolled his eyes and brushed through her hair.
“Yet you are so forgiving whenever it’s something that concerns you.”
Nicole blushed slightly.
“T-That’s because they don’t really matter.”
Kairos sighed.
“Well, regardless, you’re just trying to stall for time aren’t you?”
Nicole averted her gaze and tightened her grip.
“W-What? I was just trying to have a conversation.”
Kairos blinked a few times.
“I must admit, I’m quite impressed you spoke up right when I was about to tell you to let go. But still, we can’t remain like this forever.”
Nicole took a deep breath.
“I know…”
Despite saying that, it still took her another minute or so until she finally reluctantly let go.
Nicole began walking away, but took several glances backwards, as though double-checking that Kairos hadn’t changed his mind. There was a part of him that did want to give in to that pleading gaze, but he knew it wasn’t the time for that.
Originally, he was concerned about the well-being of the people in general. However, the most important thing for them was if those that protected them actually had enough power to do just that.
Kairos slowly pulled out a small, glowing, light green crystal. It was the one that Ling had given him a long time ago by forcefully pulling it out of his messed up eye, and was what gave him the ability to see mana in the air.
He turned it over a few times in his hand, and still felt quite unsure about how to use it. Originally, he was just going to put it off more or less indefinitely, but the continuous pressure to get more and more power made him think of this.
Although it wouldn’t directly increase his strength, it would still help him tremendously, like his future vision. Though it probably wouldn’t be as strong as his future vision, finding a way to acquire this ability would still have undeniable boons.
In the end, the first and most glaring conclusion he came to was sticking the crystal into his eye.
It was just the one that made most sense, as it worked for Ling while it was inside of his eye. However, Kairos was somewhat traumatized by the pain of sticking something in his eye.
There was a time when he was completely overloaded with anger, and in a reckless attempt to stifle them, he stabbed himself in the eye with a knife, though it was only in his future vision.
Nonetheless, it was extremely painful.
Kairos knew beforehand that stabbing at the organs behind his ribcage was also extremely painful and tactfully avoided that place after that reasonable discovery. Though, when he did stab it, it wasn’t too far deep.
However, when he did so with his eye, he pierced through the entire thing and into his flesh.
That was his most memorable experience of physical pain. The phantom pain afterward stuck with him for several days, which prompted him to check in the mirror several times, just to check whether or not he actually stabbed his eye.
Though, now that he had experience, at least he could prepare himself.
Kairos held the crystal up next to his eye and got ready.
His plan was to extend his future vision to two seconds, stick the crystal in his eye, then quickly try to figure out if it actually let him see mana. Though, regardless of the outcome, he was going to stop himself, as he didn’t want to destroy one of his eyes for the sake of seeing mana. This was more so just to see if it worked that way.
Kairos took a deep breath, while his pupils constricted. He slowly took off his glasses and extended his future vision to two seconds.
The crystal was quite small, but right now it looked strangely large.
Then, without thinking about it too much, Kairos shoved it in his eye. The immediate pain was expected, but not nearly as bad as before thanks to his increased willpower stat. Nonetheless, it was still pretty bad.
However, that was not his focus. He only had two seconds to check if he could actually see mana, and realistically it was shorter than that. Pushing through the pain, he tried to focus, and he was actually able to see very faint traces of mana.
Kairos then quickly stopped his hand, which was just about to shove the crystal right through his eye. He felt a bit of sweat form as he looked at the glint the crystal gave off.
Then, he set it down on the table in front of him.
His original conclusion was correct. If he did put it inside of his eye, it would give him the ability to see mana.
Unfortunately, that would lead to his eye being destroyed, and from how faint the mana looked, Kairos felt that it was also wasting the potential of the crystal. If he could find some way to meld it into his eye, like it was for Ling, then he should have that same ability. Unfortunately, that didn’t seem the most feasible.
It made Kairos wonder how in the world this crystal got into Ling’s eye in the first place, and if he was born with it.
After a bit of deliberation, he decided just to try things, even if they seemed a little stupid.
First, he tried to put it towards the side of his eye. Unfortunately, that was just painful and didn’t even let him see mana. Then, he tried directly embedding it into his arm, and directly in the path of one of the veins, thinking maybe it could work by affecting his bloodstream.
But all that did was splatter blood across the place.
Kairos clicked his tongue.
“…There has to be a way.”
He continued to lodge the crystal in various places across his body, despite knowing that it probably wouldn’t work. And eventually, that led him to try to do so for his heart.
At this point, Kairos really felt like he was just being stupid. However, he nonetheless did it.
The pain was immediate, however, like the time when he had shoved it into his eye, he was able to see mana. And on top of that, it was even clearer than before.
Nonetheless, Kairos quickly stopped himself from actually doing so, as he didn’t want to damage his heart. Though he was fairly confident he could survive, he probably would die in the process of trying to pull the crystal back out.
Though, he was tempted just to do so once he found that solution.
However, there was something he saw in that brief moment he could see mana.
Somehow, he could just sense where the mana was in his own body. He could generally tell that it circulated through him in a similar fashion to blood, but was far thicker.
But there were two places where it had gathered most noticeably.
The first one was right where his heart was. It seemed that mana also depended on the beat of his heart to circulate through the rest of his body.
The second one was at the center of his forehead.
The mana here was the largest. At the very edges of that collection of mana were his eyes.
Kairos connected the dots, realizing that if the crystal was directly in contact with a large amount of his mana, it would let him see mana more clearly.
…So if he put it in his forehead, then it should give him the ability to see mana as clearly as possible.
After a bit of hesitation, Kairos made a small wound in the top of his forehead using his fingers, then placed the crystal there.
Almost immediately, his entire vision filled with bright blue streams lazily moving through the air. Kairos sucked in a cold breath.
He actually figured out a way to use it.
In truth, he truly doubted that he would be able to find a way. At least, not any time soon.
Yet here it was.
Kairos felt that if he shoved the crystal through his skull, then the mana vision would become even clearer, but that was probably just a bad thing overall.
He remembered before that Ling felt pain from seeing excessive concentrations of mana, meaning that seeing too much would probably just be bad. Having his future vision made him quite familiar with drawbacks like that.
Nonetheless, because it was just embedded into the skin of his forehead, it wouldn’t be too big of a deal to pull it back out if he needed to deactivate it.
Kairos got up from his chair and walked towards the window, looking out towards the rest of the city.
It felt like an entirely different world seeing all of the mana flow through the air. They seemed to gather into streams as they flowed around, randomly making many lines in the air. They almost looked like the strokes of a paintbrush.
Despite the innate randomness, there was also a sense of beauty that Kairos admired.
But soon after, he shook his head.
Although things were far ahead of schedule, that didn’t mean he was done testing just yet.
